Discoveries
by lalaclayton
Summary: Pacing through the halls of Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge makes a discovery that will alter the course of one student's life forever. Friendships are tested, loyalties challenged and secrets revealed. How will the world react? And are they really ready to handle what is to come to light? My first fanfic. No slash, mostly canon pairings. Please R&R.
1. Prologue

_AN: Hi everyone! This is my first story, and is a hogwarts-reads-the-books story. I'm sure you have all read a version (or 10) of these before, but I have read as many like this as I could possibly find, and have never found one that got further than the second book, so I decided to write my own. I'm posting this prologue as a sort of taster, and would like your opinions on whether you want the rest of the story once I have finished Philosopher's Stone or the entire series. Even if it takes me the next 10 years, I will not abandon this story. Also, I'm British, so please don't try to correct my spellings or grammar according to American rules (obviously if there are any other mistakes, I'm always ready to accept constructive criticism)._

_Disclaimer: I will only do this once. I am not, and will never be, Joanne Rowling. Anything that is bold is directly taken from her works, and any recognisable characters and plot situations are hers. I will not generate any income from this story. Thank you._

_Now. Enough of me. Read on, my friends._

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><p>Professor Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary of the Minister for Magic and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts School, was riled. Her first few lessons with the Gryffindor fifth-years had not gone to plan. The worst of them all, she mused as she paced down the corridor, was that insolent Potter brat – still spreading his horrific lies. What she needed was a way to expose him. She needed a sure way to make certain the whole school knows the truth. She needed a way to damage friendships and set the houses against each other. As she turned, Umbridge saw a door in the wall that she was positive had not been there just a second ago. Intrigued, she turned the handle to reveal a small room, no bigger than a cupboard, with a stool sat in the centre. On top of it sat a pile of seven books. Picking one up, she read the title: <strong>Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone<strong>. Taped to the cover was a note. It read:

_ My Dear Professor D. Umbridge, _

_I can ensure that everything you read in these books is the truth of what has been, is, and will happen. They tell the story of one Harry James Potter, and his journey through the wizarding world. If it pleases you, read them aloud to the school. It may prove a point._

_Yours sincerely,_

_T.R.L_

This, Umbridge thought, was perfect. She picked up the rest of the books, smiled evilly to herself, and headed for her office.

Harry Potter was sat in the Gryffindor common room, finishing up his gruelling foot-and-a-half-long History of Magic homework. His two best friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Wealsey, were sat next to him. Hermione, who (of course) was up to date on all her homework, was re-reading _Hogwarts: A History_, whilst Ron struggled on, only halfway through the notes he had borrowed from Hermione. 'Come on, 'Mione! Just one little peak at what you've done?'

Harry sighed. 'Here, Ron' he said, passing his parchment across the table. 'I've got to go now anyway.'

'Thanks, mate, and don't worry – it's only a detention. We've had worse!'

Harry clenched his left hand in silent disagreement.

At that moment, the magically magnified voice of 'the toad' as the students had quickly dubbed her, rang out across Hogwarts. "Hem hem. All pupils, staff members and ghosts are to assemble in the Great Hall immediately. The numbers will be checked, so do not try to 'disappear' or there _will_ be consequences."

The trio looked at each other and shrugged. Harry was suspicious – Umbridge had sounded happy, and that was never a good sign. Even so, they walked to the Great hall and took their seats, slightly worried that even Professor Dumbledore looked confused.

When everyone had arrived, Professor Umbridge stood up to address the school.

"I have received a package of seven books. They follow the events of the life of one particular student during Hogwarts,"

Umbridge paused to smile at her fellow teachers and the students – all of which were glaring at her.

"His name is Harry Potter."

The hall gaped as she continued.

"Everything we will hear is true –"

"HANG ON!" shouted Harry, "HOW COME YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REVEAL MY ENTIRE LIFE TO THE WHOLE OF HOGWARTS?"

"Why, Mr. Potter? Something you have to hide?" Umbridge replied sweetly.

Harry turned away from her and tried to keep his emotions under control.

Minerva had gone pale, as had Poppy Pomfrey. What had happened to the boy that he didn't want everybody knowing? He was even keeping the secret from his friends, she could tell by the way he avoided their gaze, and they were as close as they come. Why did he always bottle himself up?

Umbridge had started talking again.

"– And so all his vicious lies will come out. Also," She stated, turning now to Dumbledore, "I have invited a few colleagues of mine."

At that moment, Percy Weasley and Minister Cornelius Fudge strode through the doors. The Weasley clan growled. As did Harry – Fudge wasn't his favourite person right now.

To everyone's surprise, Dumbledore merely smiled and clapped his hands. "If you will excuse me," He said, "I will return very shortly. Meanwhile – eat!"

The tables filled with food, and as Dumbledore left, excited chatter broke out across the hall. Harry and his friends sat in stunned silence. Hermione was making use of girls' ability to talk using their eyes, and was having a silent conversation with Ginny. Neville was too shocked to talk. Harry was so angry he stayed silent to avoid biting anyone's head off. Ron, well, Ron was oblivious. He had a plate full of food and was steadily making his way through it, even though they had only eaten dinner about an hour ago. The teachers, too, were shocked. It was an obvious invasion of Potter's privacy, yet with the Minister on Umbridge's side, there was not much they could do. Snape was sneering. He would finally find out just what a pampered prince Potter had been, and the whole school would have to accept it!

Dumbledore had returned, and he had a crowd of people with him. Harry looked up, and as he did so he was bowled over by a large, black dog.

"Hey, Snuffles! Hiya, Remus." He greeted the man who followed.

"Wotcher, Harry. Any idea what this is about?" This third newcomer had short, bubble-gum pink hair, and wore black auror robes.

"That –"

"Harry! Language!"

"Hello to you too Hermione!

"Sorry Tonks, how are you both?"

Snuffles barked.

"You too, pup. You okay?"

Dumbledore smiled; glad to see the trio acting more like normal teens. The last guest, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, limped over to the enlarged staff table without a word and sat down. Umbridge was outraged at the intrusion of extra people, but didn't have a chance to say anything as the Headmaster stepped forwards.

"I apologise to you all for the delay, but I thought that we might as well have our own guests. I am sure many of you remember Remus Lupin,"

Cheers for the ex-professor echoed around the room from three of the four tables.

"He is here with his dog, Snuffles,"

"Is he new, sir?" A third-year hufflepuff asked.

"Paddy? Nah, he's been my best mate for years."

Snuffles barked.

Smiling at Sirius' antics, Dumbledore continued, "Also here we have Alastor Moody and Nymphadora Tonks"

"Please, Professor. Just Tonks."

"Hem Hem." Umbridge was back on her feet. "If we want to make it through these books before Christmas, we had best get started."

"Yes, of course, Dolores. Just a couple more things we need to address. Time spent reading will be made up for over the remaining school year, so there is no reason to worry about exams, and every few chapters or so a few more people will join us. Ready? Would you read first, my dear professor?

Umbridge cleared her throat, opened the book, and began.

"**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Chapter One – The-Boy-Who-Lived"**

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><p><em>AN: The story starts on Harry's fourth day of lessons, just before he leaves for his third detention with Umbridge. Just in case you can't be bothered to find this point in the story - this would've been the day that Ron discovers what really happens in the detentions and he tells Harry about his ambition to be keeper. As Harry never reaches the detention, and as Ron doesn't have the chance to go for his training session, neither knows about the others secret. The third detention is the one where the message finally starts to 'sink in', so Harry's hand is slightly red and painful, but there no obvious signs of the blood quill. Sorry if that was a bit long winded, but I'm one of those readersauthors who like to know everything possible about the time and setting so I can get it straight in my mind. It should also help get the rest of the story into perspective. Lala x_


	2. Chapter One - The Boy Who Lived

Hi everyone! This is just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who has followed/favorited so far, and that instead of posting when I have finished each book, I'm going to start posting once a fortnight. Hopefully that's alright for all of you, as I don't want to keep you waiting for too long with this story. On that note, enjoy!

Lala x

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><p><em>Umbridge cleared her throat, opened the book, and began.<em>

"_**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Chapter One – The-Boy-Who-Lived"**_

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,**

"I thought this was about Potter?"

**of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. **

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. **

"What are drills?" A few pure-bloods asked.

"Any questions on muggle equipment and I will answer them at the end of the chapter" Professor Burbage called.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. **

"Wonderful family." said Fred

"Simply delightful!" said George

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Harry, Ron, Hermione, the twins and, to some people's amazement, McGonagall, snorted.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. **

Remus and Sirius growled

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

Growls again, this time including (albeit quieter) Snape.

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like _what_?" said Ginny.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"You know, Gred, I think this tie is too exciting for my tastes"

"I agree Forge, it needs dulling down a bit"

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. **

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window. **

"Observant"

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," **

"He encouraged it?" said Sprout, surprised he wasn't even told off.

**chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. **

Some older students eyed McGonagall suspiciously.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. **

"Stupid muggle, will believe anything to avoid magic" Malfoy drawled.

**Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, **_**looking**_** at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or**_** signs. **

"Minnie can!" said Fred and George.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. **

"What's wrong with cloaks?" A slytherin asked.

"Muggles don't wear cloaks – it would have been odd to see so many people out in them on one day" Remus answered.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! **

"Oh yes, how dare he!"

**But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt — these people were obviously collecting for something … yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills. **

"He has more of a one-track mind than Ron near food!" Hermione whispered to Ginny.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He**_** didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. **

"Never seen an owl?!"

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs **

"Did I hear that right? Uncle Vernon willingly _walked_?" Harry had come out of his anger and decided that if he couldn't change it, he would at least make it more enjoyable.

A few younger Gryffindors wondered how Harry knew the muggle.

**and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery. **

"That makes more sense…" Harry said.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying. **

"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —" **

"— **yes, their son, Harry —" **

The teachers and a few seventh years realised what day this was and became grim.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. **

"Yes!" yelled Colin.

"It's a figure of speech!" laughed Ginny.

"Oh"

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. **

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking … no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was**_** called Harry. **

Minerva looked slightly odd. "He didn't even know your name"

Harry thought. Ron eyed him.

"Harry, does your uncle even know your name now?" He asked slowly.

Again, Harry thought. When he didn't reply, Minerva narrowed her eyes.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if **_**he'd**_** had a sister like that … **

Many of the adults hissed, Sirius barked and Remus said "A sister like _what?" _Snape silently agreed.

Harry, to people's surprise, laughed. "Like Aunt Marge is any better!"

Ron smirked. "Is she….."

"Yep!" He replied.

Hermione wacked them.

"Don't spoil the story!" She hissed, but even she had to fight to keep a grin off her face.

Onlookers wondered what had happened to this Marge that was quite so funny.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks … **

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door. **

"Was there any lasting injuries?"

"**Sorry," **

The twins pretended to faint. Harry actually did.

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" **

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off. **

"Filius?" The headmaster smiled. The tiny charms professor only grinned.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination. **

This time it was the twins who blacked out.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw — and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

Everyone who had seen Minerva transform was certain now.

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. **

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. **

The gryffindors shivered – they knew that look all too well. Minerva smirked that she had such an effect on her pupils.

**Was this normal cat behaviour? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife. **

"Coward"

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Shan't!"). **

"Delightful" Pomona muttered.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: **

"**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newsreader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, **

"Dad!" smiled Tonks.

"**I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight." **

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters …**

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?" **

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister. **

More growls.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?" **

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls … shooting stars … and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today …"**

"**So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought … maybe … it was something to do with … you know … **_**her**_** crowd." **

"Humph. That's not a nice way to talk about people." Malfoy said, in a carrying mutter.

"Hark, who's talking." retorted Hermione.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?" **

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly. **

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?" **

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." **

"Who in their right mind calls a kid Dudley?"

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree." **

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something. **

"I was."

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did … if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it. **

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were**_** involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind. … He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect **_**them**_**…**

**How very wrong he was. **

"I wish he wasn't." The teachers (excluding Umbridge) shared uneasy looks. It was unlike Potter to be so impolite.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all. **

"Really, Professor?" queried Lee.

He only received a stern glare as an answer.

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed. **

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore. **

The Great Hall burst into cheers and applause for their headmaster, who stood, bowed and sat again, looking intently at Professor Umbridge.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. **

"I knew. It just didn't bother me."

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known." **

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it. **

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." **

"Why were you in muggle surrey, Professors?" A second year asked. She got no reply.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked. **

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." **

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here." **

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily. **

"I do not 'sniff angrily'" She sniffed angrily, as if daring anyone to disagree.

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls … shooting stars. … Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense." **

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years." **

Many young students looked surprised that the first war had lasted so long.

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours." **

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has**_** gone, Dumbledore?" **

"Of course he has." said Fudge irritably. Delores had told him they would receive the dirt on Potter, yet all they had been told about was a couple of stupid muggles.

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"**

"**A **_**what**_**?" **

"**A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"Was it really the time for a sherbet lemon, Professor?" asked Tonks, amused.

"It is _always_ time for a sherbet lemon, my dear." He said, pulling one out of a bag in his pocket as he spoke.

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has**_** gone —" **

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **

Umbridge paused.

"VOLDEMORT!" screamed Harry. Almost everyone flinched.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying **

Again, a pause, but Umbridge found the little sense she had and continued before everyone became deaf.

**Voldemort's name." **

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, was frightened of." **

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"**Only because you're too — well — **_**noble**_** to use them." **

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." **

"Too much information, sir" laughed the twins and Lee.

Dumbledore chuckled as Poppy blushed.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumours**_** that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" **

The hall fell into an uneasy silence.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. **

"That's exactly what I thought."

**Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer. **

"**What they're **_**saying**_**,****" she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — **_**dead**_**.****" **

All eyes turned to Harry, and Remus quietly stood to pull him into a hug.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. "Lily and James … I can't believe it … I didn't want to believe it … Oh, Albus …" **

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know … I know …" he said heavily. Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on.**

"**That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potters' son, Harry. But — he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone." **

**Dumbledore nodded glumly. **

"**It's — it's **_**true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done … all the people he's killed … he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding … of all the things to stop him … but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?" **

"Yeah, Professor Dumbledore. Care to explain? I've only been asking you for the PAST FIVE YEARS!"

Everyone was shocked. Dumbledore continued to avert his gaze, which only riled Harry further. Luckily, Hermione stepped in.

"Harry…" she warned "He will tell you when he's ready."

Harry glared at both his friend and the headmaster, but sat down. Again, the teachers shared concerned glances. What had gotten into him?

"**We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know." **

"Humph"

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?" **

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why**_** you're here, of all places?"**

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

Harry glared at Dumbledore as people spoke up from all over the room.

"You have us now, Harrykins!" shouted the Weasley twins.

Sirius barked loudly and jumped on to Harry's lap, trying to lick his face.

Ron, Hermione and Remus all smiled at him. "We're here for you. Remember that."

"**You don't mean — you **_**can't**_** mean the people who live **_**here**_**?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. **

The hall gasped.

"**Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!" **

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter." **

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in the future — there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"**

Harry smiled up at his head-of-house. "Thanks for trying, Professor McGonagall**" **

"**Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?" **

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it. **

Everyone chuckled, glad of something to diffuse the tension.

"**Hagrid's bringing him." **

"**You think it — **_**wise**_**— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?" **

"I would trust Hagrid with my life" Harry said strongly.

Ron smiled. "Yeah, just not with my secrets." He muttered to Hermione.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore. **

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?" **

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them. **

Sirius barked happily, wagging his tail.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild**_** — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets. **

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir." **

Many people became angry at the mention of Sirius, but Snuffles himself just barked again.

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol." **

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. **

Most of the girls cooed.

"**Is that where — ?" whispered Professor McGonagall. **

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever." **

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?" **

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

"Again, didn't need to know that!"

**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with." **

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house. **

"**Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog. **

Sirius imitated it, collapsing to the ground as he did so.

"Stupid mutt' laughed Remus. Harry couldn't help it either – Sirius would take any opportunity for a joke.

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!" **

"Sympathetic, Professor" Ginny laughed.

Minerva glared.

"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it — Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —" **

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out. **

"YOU LEFT HIM ON A BLOODY DOORSTEP!" yelled Hermione, outraged. "IT WAS SUPPOSED TO RAIN."

As this fact sunk in, more people began to yell.

"HE COULD HAVE CRAWLED OFF"

"ANYONE COULD HAVE TAKEN HIM"

"WHAT IF A DEATH EATER HAD TURNED UP? WHAT THEN!"

Dumbledore was looking quite overwhelmed. Umbridge, however, had that smug look of victory that meant she thought something good was coming out of this after all.

Eventually, Harry intervened.

"OI! Look, I'm here aren't I? Nothing happened. Can we just continue, please?" Harry wanted to get through the books as quickly as possible. Having to relive everything again was going to be bad enough, let alone listening to everybody's reactions.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations." **

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'd best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir." **

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night. **

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. **

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four. **

"**Good luck, Harry," he murmured. **

"Yeah, that worked well."

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley. … He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

"Who would like to read the next chapter?" Umbridge asked.

Minerva volunteered.

"Chapter two – The Vanishing Glass" she said.


	3. Chapter Two - The Vanishing Glass

_AN: Hi everyone, I'm such an impatient person, so you get the chapter a week earlier than planned. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p>"<em>Who would like to read the next chapter?" Umbridge asked.<em>

_Minerva volunteered._

"_**Chapter two – The Vanishing Glass" **__she said._

However, before she could start reading, the doors to the room swung open, and two people stood framed in the doorway. "We were asked to meet you here, Professor Dumbledore?"

"Ah,Yes. Please find a seat. I'm sure all will be explained."

Aunt Petunia started, shocked. "YOU!" she screamed. Harry stood up, ready to defend himself, but his aunt was facing the other direction. "What are you doing here, you good-for-nothing –"

Snape merely sneered. "Nice to see you too, Tuney."

"Hang on," said Harry. "Do you two _know_ each other?"

"None of your business, boy." They both growled, still staring at one another.

"_Hem Hem." _Umbridge was becoming annoyed at the hold ups.

Dudley pulled his mother to where Harry was sat at the back of the room. "Hi." he said lamely.

"Hey." Harry replied, not sure what they were doing here. He looked up at McGonagall, who started reading quickly.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the doorstep, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **

"BORING" shouted the twins.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats**

"I did not look like a beach ball!" started Dudley.

Ron snorted. "I love your descriptions, mate."

— **but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

_So where was Harry?_ Many wondered.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"My voice is not shrill."

"I pity you, Potter." Snape said to him quietly, glaring at his aunt. Harry was still wondering how they knew each other.

"**Up! Get up! Now!" **

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. **

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. **

"How can you hear that from your bed? You must have very good hearing." Ginny wondered out loud.

Harry didn't disagree with her. He was dreading what would happen when people found out.

**He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before. **

"And a very good memory." commented Professor Flitwick.

**His aunt was back outside the door. **

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded. **

"**Nearly," said Harry. **

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." **

**Harry groaned. **

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door. **

"He didn't say anything, Hag" muttered Tonks.

"**Nothing, nothing …" **

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. **

Ron shuddered.

**Harry was used to spiders, **

McGonagall paused, both her face and lips white. "Mr. Potter," she said quietly. "Outside if you will."

She looked downright dangerous, so Harry sighed and followed.

Once the doors had shut behind them, Flitwick picked up the book and continued where his colleague had left off.

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

There was pandemonium.

Back outside, Minerva had turned on Harry. "And why, Mr. Potter, did you not think to inform us of this?"

"It – It wasn't important. By the time I arrived at Hogwarts I had moved rooms, and I didn't want to trouble anyone without reason."

The Professor's face softened. "It would not have been without reason, Harry, That was child abuse and you know it."

Harry blanched – _What would they do if they found out the rest of it?_

"Really, Professor, I'm fine. Can we go and continue reading? I think you'll find the rest of this chapter interesting."

They entered, and things were only just calming down. It seemed Dumbledore had had to place a shield over both the Dursleys and himself to stop any curses, and even Snape looked shocked. Potter had not been the pampered little prince he had always assumed him to be? And it was Petunia, the sister that Lily, _his_ Lily, had cared so much about even when she deserted her, that had done this? He couldn't believe it.

Dumbledore lifted the charms and Minerva and Harry retook their seats. She continued, but they could still detect an undercurrent of anger to her voice.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody. **

Ginny turned around to give harry a piercing glare to rival McGonagall's. "Harry, I swear…."

**Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast. **

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. **

"Nope," Remus said with a smile, "You're father was a scrawny git too."

Harry smacked him lightly.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. **

Many people looked between Harry and the boy sat next to him, and laughed.

Eventually Fred choked out "More like 40!"

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, **

"James" sighed Remus.

**and bright green eyes. **

"Lily" whispered Snape.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. **

Harry received strange glances from all directions.

"I was ten." He defended "I didn't know what it meant."

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it. **

"**In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions." **

"WHAT? A CAR CRASH? KILL LILY AND JAMES POTTER!"

Severus Snape had surprised even himself. He had jumped to his feet and, along with much of the rest of the hall, was shooting daggers at Petunia. He knew he had let his mask fall, and this was reflected in the giggles coming from a few idiotic first years at seeing their Potions Master so out of character, but he was too angry too care. Harry, meanwhile, was smirking at Hagrid. Hagrid had almost laughed out loud when he realised that Professor Snape had used almost the exact same words as he had, but caught himself just in time.

_**Don't ask questions**_** — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. **

"_Don't_ _ask questions?_" echoed the staff, the ravenclaws, and Hermione. "But how will you learn?"

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. **

"Like that's going to work" muttered Harry and Remus together.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place. **

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. **

This was too much for the twins, who fell of their bench laughing. "Really, Harry, where did this wit of yours go to?"

Dudley sulked.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year." **

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy." **

Again the trio laughed at the mention at Marge, and Petunia shot Harry a look.

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. **

Ron was deadly serious when he said, "That's right, don't want any to go to waste."

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two**_** presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? **_**Two**_** more presents. Is that all right?" **

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty … thirty …" **

"Can't even count." said Moody. Many people jumped, they had forgotten he was there.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia. **

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" **

**He ruffled Dudley's hair. **

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried. **

"Again, make a list if you must." Charity said before anyone could say anything.

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction. **

"He's still there you know." The Weasley kids (minus Percy) growled.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. **

Harry shuddered.

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbies, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again. **

"Harry!" Hermione reprimanded.

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

More snickers.

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"Believe me, the feeling is mutual."

The professors became worried again. Harry never _hated_ anyone (except maybe Voldemort). Intense dislike, yes, but never full-blown hate.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Harry smirked, reminded of their second year.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?" **

"**On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia. **

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). **

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. **

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"**I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening. **

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car. …" **

"HE"S NOT A DOG!" Ginny half yelled.

Sirius whined, offended.

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone. …" **

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

Many students turned to stare at Dudley, who promptly blushed.

"**Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him. **

"Oh Merlin…"

"Dinky Duddydums! That's worse that something Peeves would come up with!"

"**I … don't … want … him … t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. **

"Horrible child." commented Pomona to Poppy.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course" snorted the twins.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside. **

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas." **

When Harry felt the eyes of the school on him, he said quickly, "Don't worry, they didn't!"

"**I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly …" **

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. **

"Still don't" Harry muttered to himself. His friends frowned slightly.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. **

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." **

"Wish I had a picture of that!" shouted Malfoy gleefully.

"Wish I had a picture of you as a ferret" Ginny retorted, "But we don't always get what we want in life."

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he **_**couldn't**_** explain how it had grown back so quickly. **

Snape glowered, his eyes cold. "You knew about accidental magic, Petunia. Why did you punish him for something he can't control?"

Aunt Petunia averted her gaze, but muttered something that Harry thought sounded a lot like "Vernon."

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished. **

"Small happiness."

Snape may have been changing his view on Harry's background and home life, but he was still an arrogant little Gryffindor swine.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump. **

"You flew?"

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. **

"Jinxed it, mate" Dean smiled.

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. **

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles. **

"Doesn't complain much, then?"

"… **roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them. **

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." **

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" **

Snuffles barked. Harry laughed as he could almost imagine Sirius jumping up and yelling, "MINE DOES!"

**Dudley and Piers sniggered. **

"**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." **

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas. **

The hall glared. Before she continued, Minerva addressed the twins, who had turned to Lee and begun whispering excitedly, obviously scheming. "And you three are forbidden from watching any cartoons as well, you have enough ideas as it is, you might turn the charms corridor into a swamp for all I know." As she turned back to the book, she winked. The twins grinned brightly, plans already forming.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley ****and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

Everyone laughed, and even Snape cracked a smile. Dudley, who had been reconsidering Harry for a while now, joined in. It was harmless after all.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. **

People smiled that Harry seemed to be having a good day at last.

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last. **

The mood sobered.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. **

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. **

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. **

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. **

Harry didn't know what to expect form people at this next bit. Many knew he was a parselmouth, after his second year, but would Umbridge and her minions use it against him?

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house. **

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. **

**It winked. **

Hermione stared. "Harry, you know that's physically impossible, right? Snakes don't have eyelids."

He shrugged.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. **

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: **

"_**I get that all the time." **_

Umbridge smirked. "So, Mr Potter. Were you ever going to notify us about your abilities?"

Teachers glared. It wasn't something he had wanted to share after all the attention it gained him in his second year, and it was his choice.

"Well, Professor Umbridge," he countered "were _you_ ever going to inform us that you were part hag?"

Scattered laughter broke out, but most were holding their breaths.

Umbridge's voice was hard.

"You've just earned yourself another weeks' worth of detentions, my dear."

Harry's jaw clenched. "Tomorrow at five?" he asked calmly, knowing the routine.

Dudley stared, not knowing anyone quite as horrific as the sweetly smiling, fluffy jumper-ed, pink bow-wearing woman in front of him.

Harry nodded to Minerva to continue, and she did, though shaken. She had her suspicions about what happened in these detentions, mainly from the way Harry's left hand clenched whenever _she_ was in the room.

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." **

**The snake nodded vigorously. **

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. **

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. **

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil. **

"**Was it nice there?" **

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?" **

"You have such a normal conversation."

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T **_**BELIEVE**_** WHAT IT'S DOING!" **

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. **

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

The school laughed, and the teachers looked impressed.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. **

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come. … Thanksss, amigo." **

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. **

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" **

"Into non-being. Which is to say, everything." answered Flitwick, with little hesitation.

"It disappeared," said Fred.

"Just like Magic!" finished George.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" **

"Prat."

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

It was now becoming a common occurrence for hundreds of glares to be sent towards Petunia, but she could only assume it would get worse.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. **

"You shouldn't _have_ to." Ginny growled.

"I'm fine, Gin" He said wearily.

She couldn't help but smile at the nickname.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. **

"You can remember the spell." McGonagall said faintly. It wasn't a question, but Harry nodded slowly. The professors looked shocked.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. **

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. **

"NOT ANYMORE!" everyone repeated, making Harry smile. Umbridge was sour; this was only attracting more attention to the boy, creating sympathy. And that was not what she had planned.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. **

"Dedalus Diggle" said Filius quickly.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look. **

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE" Moody shouted.

Tonks' hair had gone fiery red with shock. "Sweet Merlin, Moody, was that necessary?"

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang. **

Dudley frowned under the weight of the glares. He hadn't thought it was _that_ bad for Harry.

McGonagall looked up. "Who now?"

To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand shot up. She levitated the book over and began to read.

"**Chapter three – The Letters from No-one"**

* * *

><p><em>AN:<em>

_Seating at the Gryffindor table (top of list nearest the teachers) only showing main characters and they are sat at the far end of the table. Thought it might clear some things up. I will include another seating plan whenever new people join the table. If anyone has arrived who is not mentioned on these plans, they are sat at the teachers' table._

_Fred – Colin_

_George – Lee_

_Ginny – Angelina_

_Ron – Seamus_

_Hermione – Neville_

_Remus & Snuffles – Tonks_

_Harry – Dean_

_Dudley – Sir Nicholas_

_Petunia –_


	4. Chapter Three - The Letters From No-one

_AN: Thank you to all the reviewers so far, I really appreciate all your opinions so thank you! Hope you enjoy this chapter, I found it surprisingly easy to write, actually._

_Lala x_

* * *

><p><em>Dudley frowned under the weight of the glares. He hadn't thought it was that bad for Harry.<em>

_McGonagall looked up. "Who now?" _

_To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand shot up. She levitated the book over and began to read._

"_**Chapter three – The Letters from No-one" **_

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **

The Dursleys were beginning to feel like coming here was a bad plan.

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. **

"Harry," Ginny said quietly, but her brothers and the rest of the trio could tell there was an underlying hint of anger. "When is Dudley's birthday?"

Harry mumbled something unintelligible.

"Sorry?"

"June 23rd."

Dudley was surprised at the quick answer, he could tell already that Ginny was not one to cross, and that Harry liked her. But he wasn't sure he even knew when Harry's birthday was, let alone off the top of his head.

"But what about school?" fretted Minerva.

"I went to school still, Professor, but I wasn't allowed outside at break or lunch because Dudley always conveniently found something that was my fault."

Dudley paled, and his mother was shocked, but Harry didn't seem angry. He looked like he had forgiven Dudley for everything.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting. **

The Weasleys growled. Nobody hurt their little brother (This included Ron, he was the most protective friend you could ask for).

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to **

"HOGWARTS!" the hall yelled.

"What kind of name is Smeltings?"

"Colin, we go to a school called Hogwarts."

"Fair point."

**Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny. **

"**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?" **

"**No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said. **

The twins were rolling around under the table laughing, while Dudley looked as though he was still puzzled.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years. **

"That was nice of her." said Luna dreamily.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life. **

The whole school was laughing, they were so glad their uniform was more normal.

The teachers looked puzzled at how hitting each other with sticks was any good for anything, while Madam Pomfrey looked almost murderous.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. **

More laughter.

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

"**What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"Yes, Harry, how dare you." smiled the twins.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"**Your new school uniform," she said. **

**Harry looked in the bowl again. **

"**Oh," he said, "I didn't realise it had to be so wet." **

"Never use sarcasm on your aunt, Potter, It doesn't work very well." Snape said, before he could stop himself.

"**Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." **

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. **

"That's new." sneered Snape, back to his usual self.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. **

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. **

**They heard the click of the letter box and flop of letters on the doormat.**

"**Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"He made him _do _something?" Ginny asked, flabbergasted.

"Hey, I do some stuff!" Dudley replied.

"Like what?" questioned Harry.

Dudley didn't answer.

"**Make Harry get it." **

"**Get the mail, Harry." **

"**Make Dudley get it." **

"**Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley." **

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was on holiday on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — **_**a letter for Harry. **_

The hall cheered.

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr. H. Potter **_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs **_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging **_

_**Surrey **_

"How did you not notice the cupboard being on the letter?" Hermione asked the headmaster angrily.

"The letters are self-addressed, Miss Granger."

She wasn't convinced.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. **

Quills were hastily picked up so students could add to their lists.

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter **_**H**_**. **

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. **

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. **

"NO!" Many shouted. "Open it in the hall!"

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. "Marge's ill," **

"Good." Harry and Ron muttered.

**he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk …" **

"**Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!" **

"Git."

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. **

"**That's **_**mine**_**!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back. **

"Uh oh." said Fred

"Don't want to lose your temper, young Harry," supplied George

"We might all be without eardrums again!" grinned the twins.

Harry smirked and Hermione rolled her eyes before continuing.

"**Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge. **

"Urgh"

"**P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. **

"Drama queen, much."

"**Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!" **

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

Ginny shivered. "Imagine if _we_ did that to Dad."

Ron paled.

"**I want to read that letter," he said loudly. **

"_**I **_**want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine**_**.****" **

The twins looked at harry pointedly.

"**Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. **

**Harry didn't move. **

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted. **

This time, the entirety of gryffindor house grinned. "Never," commented Dennis Creevey, "get Harry angry."

Snape was busy remembering the time another emerald-eyed teen had lost their temper. It was the biggest mistake he ever made (and he had many wrong choices to choose from).

"**Let **_**me**_** see it!" demanded Dudley. **

"**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. **

"**Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" **

"**Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly. **

"**But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —" **

Petunia cringed at what she had said. She knew it was the best thing for the boy.

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. **

"**No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best … we won't do anything. …" **

"**But —" **

"**I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" **

"Stamp out." Hermione repeated faintly.

"He didn't did he?" whispered Remus.

"Of course not, Lupin, who do you think I am?" Petunia replied, hurt.

Dudley muttered something under his breath. Unfortunately, his mother had heard.

"WHAT? I'm sorry, Miss Hermione, stop for a moment."

The hall went silent, all eyes fixed on the suddenly ferocious woman sat at the far end of the Gryffindor table.

"Did you say what I thought you said, Dudley?"

Ron felt a wave of sympathy for the other boy. He knew that type of glare all too well.

Dudley nodded.

"Both of you, outside, NOW!"

Harry mutely agreed, not wanting to anger his aunt further. Dudley followed. As they passed, Minerva stood up as well and, when nobody stopped her, swept after the family quickly.

It was a good job Harry had cast a silencing shield around the group, or the whole hall would find out what was going on.

"DUDLEY VERNON DURSLEY! DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT –"

"Aunt Petunia, please. Don't make a fuss."

"Not make a fuss, Potter?" McGonagall queried, eyebrow raised.

"It wasn't Dudley's fault. It wasn't anyone's. If anything, it was mine."

Petunia became very grave.

"Harry, listen to me. You need to tell me what my pig of a husband did to you, and you need to remember that none of it was your fault at all. It was probably mine. I left you alone in the house with him, knowing full well his view on magic. I played along to his neglect, due to my own cowardice. If you are anything like your parents, you will be a much better man than I ever could be. But why didn't you tell anyone?"

Harry looked shocked. He plainly thought it was obvious.

"Well, I couldn't tell you – it would only make it worse if he found out, and Dudley knew, and I couldn't tell anyone here, Professor, because _the great Harry Potter_ has no problems of his own, just those of the rest of the bloody wizarding world!"

Harry took a deep breath and looked apologetically at his shocked transfiguration teacher.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I mean… I wasn't sure you would believe me, as everyone thinks so much of me, and never expects that anything bad could ever happen to _me_. And the headmaster is always going on about how I had to stay there to keep me safe, so I wasn't sure what you could do."

"Oh, Harry." Petunia sighed. "I knew Vernon was cruel, and harsh, and that he over reacted, but I never thought he would go that far. I hadn't planned on telling you both yet, but I have filed for a divorce. I realised in the run up to you receiving your letter that things were out of hand, but it has taken this long for everything to get going. As it wasn't urgent, it was low down on the register, but it's going to court next week. I want full custody of both of you, and this reading thing might be just what we need to get to know you better, Harry. I can tell you that it will all be over and done with by next summer, so you will never have to see Vernon again."

As she finished, Petunia pulled both the boys into a tight hug, and Harry smiled up at his aunt, glad that it was taken care of, and he had one less thing to worry about. Minerva was glad too; her little cub seemed to have visibly relaxed already, as if a weight really had been lifted off of his shoulders.

As they walked back to their seats, they saw the chatter die down, and every eye in the room turn to the Boy-Who-Lived and his family. They were surprised to see the cheerful smiles on their faces. As Minerva returned to her place, she had to hold back a smirk. Albus looked downtrodden and disappointed; Hagrid was almost in tears, and Severus was so shocked that he didn't seem to know what to do. He couldn't even formulate a straight thought. _But… Potter… Can't be right… Lily… similar…_ He shook his head. If this was true, they would not be so happy. Potter's childhood was nothing like his own. It couldn't have been. He wasn't wrong. He was never wrong.

'Keep going, 'Mione" Harry muttered.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard. **

"**Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" **

"**No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it." **

"**It was**_** not**_** a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." **

Ginny giggled. "You are hilarious when you're angry, Harry. Did you know?"

"**SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. **

Ron shuddered.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"**Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking … you're really getting a bit big for it … we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom." **

Dudley received some quite ferocious glares that time.

"**Why?" said Harry. **

"**Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge),**

Harry, Ron and even Dudley smirked at the mention of Vernon's sister.

**one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. **

Hermione humphed.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want **_**him in there … I **_**need **_**that room … make him get out. …" **

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it. **

"Pessimist, much?"

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. **

The teachers looked shocked. The Weasleys were wondering what would happen if _they _had tried that.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. **

"Well, nah!" came a voice from the ravenclaw table.

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. **

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —' " **

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. **

Ron laughed out loud that time. "Is that where you learnt it?"

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand. **

"**Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan. **

All of the fifth-year gryffindors groaned. "Hey!" Harry said, indignantly. "They're not that bad!"

Hermione smiled sweetly. "'course not, Harry."

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. **

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door — **

"**AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something **_**alive**_**!**

"Please be the uncle, please be the uncle" the twins chanted.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. **

"Yes!"

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. **

"**I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. **

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letter box. **

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't **_**deliver**_** them they'll just give up." **

"**I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"At least _she_ has some sense."

"**Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him. **

"Thank heavens for that!" a slytherin second year shouted.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. **

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises. **

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Tonks, whose hair had gone an acid green in shock, lost it.

"For the love of Merlin, Mad-eye, SHUT UP!"

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. **

"Getting inventive, Professor?" Ernie Macmillan called from the hufflepuff table.

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. **

"**Who on earth wants to talk to **_**you**_** this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.  
><strong>

"Ginny." said the twins in a carrying whisper.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"No post on Sundays." Hermione smiled sadly.

"**No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today —" **

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one —**

The ravenclaws looked amazed. "Why not just pick one up off the floor?" one asked.

Harry felt slightly stupid. "Ummm… seeker instincts?"

"**Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. **

Aunt Petunia glared at the book.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"**That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" **

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag. **

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

"**Shake 'em off … shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this. **

"Like that's gonna work."

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. **

The matron glared.

**By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer. **

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering... **

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. **

"That's not a meal!" said Ron loudly.

Poppy agreed.

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

" '**Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." **

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: **

**Mr. H. Potter **

**Room 17 **

**Railview Hotel **

**Cokeworth **

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared. **

"**I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.  
><strong>

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, **

"Finally."

**but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multi-storey car park. **

"**Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. **

"It must have been really obvious, if he worked it out." muttered Ginny.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled. **

"**It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**.****" **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it ****was**** Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

"WHOOO!" The Weasleys cheered.

"You know it's not actually my birthday tomorrow, don't you?"

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. Still, you weren't eleven every day. **

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

Hermione and a few other muggle-borns paled.

"If that's what I think it is…"

Nobody answered her.

"**Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" **

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. **

"**Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" **

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them. **

"**I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" **

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

"That's how you got there." smiled Hagrid. "I'd wondered."

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. **

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of crisps each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shrivelled up. **

"**Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully. **

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver post. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

Poppy glowered at the other woman, who blushed.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. **

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. **

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? **

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds … twenty … ten … nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him **

"Please do."

— **three … two … one … **

**BOOM. **

Hermione had shouted the last word, and caused some younger years to scream. Harry, who knew what was coming, banged hard on the table at the exact same time. The two grinned at each other, pleased with the reactions.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in. **

Turning the page, Hermione smiled up at Hagrid. "I think you should read next."

She spelled the book over, and Hagrid cleared his throat to begin.

"**The Keeper of the keys."**


	5. Chapter Four - The Keeper of the Keys

_AN: Hi everyone, I know I've thanked many of my reviewers, and I'm really grateful, but I want to use this note to thank everyone who has followed or favorited. Getting those emails make my day, and they really do inspire me to write more. Also, even though things have been pretty regular so far, I may slow down the updates for a while, just until the christmas break, when I can hopefully replenish my stock of pre-written chapters. They won't be stopping completely, so don't worry, it just might be every week-and-a-half rather than every week. Hope you don't mind!_

_Lala x_

* * *

><p><em>Turning the page, Hermione smiled up at Hagrid. "I think you should read next." <em>

_She spelled the book over, and Hagrid cleared his throat to begin. _

"_**The Keeper of the keys."**_

**BOOM. **

Hagrid shouted.

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. **

"**Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. **

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands — now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them. **

"Brilliant." Someone said sarcastically.

"**Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!" **

**There was a pause. Then — **

**SMASH! **

"Will you _stop_ that, Hagrid?"

"Sorry, Professor McGonagall. I wa' only tryin' to build a bitta' atmosphere, see?"

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. **

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. **

"Again, nice description."

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all. **

"**Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey. …" **

Many students laughed. _Only Hagrid._

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. **

"**Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger. **

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon. **

"**An' here's Harry!" said the giant. **

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile. **

"**Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes." **

"First time anybody told me that." Harry said, smiling.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. "I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!" **

"**Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. **

"Go Hagrid!" the students cheered.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. **

"**Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." **

A few students and some teachers grimaced. They weren't so sure.

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry**_**written on it in green icing. **

"My first birthday cake. Well, first that I can remember."

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?" **

Hermione smiled. "Really, Harry?"

**The giant chuckled. **

"**True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." **

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. **

"**What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind." **

The staff groaned.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. **

"I thought you were not allowed to do magic, Hagrid." Umbridge smiled sweetly.

Before he could answer, Dumbledore stepped in. "He had special permission, Dolores, and do try to remember this is all in the past."

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley." **

**The giant chuckled darkly. **

"**Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry." **

Everyone laughed, including Dudley. The students respect for Hagrid was rising quickly.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are." **

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. **

"**Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course." **

"Oh, dear."

"**Er — no," said Harry. **

**Hagrid looked shocked. **

"**Sorry," Harry said quickly. **

"_**Sorry?"**_** barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?" **

"**All what?" asked Harry. **

"You really had no idea?" asked Remus.

"No. I was told magic didn't exist and that any reference to it was silly from an early age."

"**ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!" **

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. **

Many snorted.

"**Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?" **

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad. **

"That's not what he meant."

"**I know **_**some**_** things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." **

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. **_**Your**_** world. **_**My**_** world. **_**Yer parents'**__**world.**_**"**

Hogwarts stiffened.

"**What world?" **

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. **

"**DURSLEY!" he boomed. Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. **

"**But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

The hall had become eerily quiet. It was as if every single person was holding their breath, afraid to make a sound.

"**What? My — my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?" **

"**Yeh don' know … yeh don' know …" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

"**Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are**_**?" he said finally. **

"I can't image what you were thinking as he said all this." Ginny whispered, breaking the charm that held the room muffled.

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. **

"**Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!" **

"Not gonna happen."

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. **

"**You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?" **

"**Kept **_**what**_** from me?" said Harry eagerly. **

"**STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. **

"Forbid Hagrid? Yeah right."

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror. **

"**Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard." **

"Nice." said George

"Short." added Lee

"To the point." finished Fred

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard. **

"**I'm a **_**what**_**?" gasped Harry. **

"**A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter." **

"WHOO"

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:  
><strong>

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL **_**of**_** WITCHCRAFT **_**and**_** WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(**_**Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards**_**)**

_**Dear Mr. Potter, **_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. **_

_**Term begins on September 1. **_

_**We await your owl by no later than July 31. **_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall, **_

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?" **

The hall laughed.

"_That _was your first question? About owls? Really?" Tonks asked.

"**Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl — a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down: **

"That's impressive."

_**Dear Professor Dumbledore, Given Harry his letter.**_

_**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**_

_**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**_

_**Hagrid**_

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"The what?"

"Oh!" said Charity. "The lists! We can run through them at the end of this chapter."

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly. **

"**Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight. **

"**He's not going," he said. **

**Hagrid grunted. **

"**I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said. **

"**A what?" said Harry, interested.**

"**A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on." **

Remus laughed. "Literally and figuratively." Snuffles barked in agreement.

"**We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! **

Everyone glared and Dudley looked at the table in shame.

**Wizard indeed!" **

"**You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew**_** I'm a — a wizard?" **

"You're not going to like this." Harry told Remus.

Aunt Petunia paled.

"**Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew!**_** Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that **_**school **_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! **

Snape glared. Lily - _His_ Lily, was no freak. Not one bit.

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!" **

"As they should be!" someone shouted, while the rest of the school was shooting daggers at Petunia.

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years. **

"**Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as — **_**abnormal**_** — and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!" **

The hall had gone very quiet.

"That's how you found out?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry just nodded.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

There was a sharp intake of breath.

"**CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

Snape stared at Hagrid and realised why he had been smirking earlier.

"**But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently. **

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. **

"_You_ told him?"

"**I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." **

"That would have been a disaster." Pomona said.

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys. **

"**Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it. …" **

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —" **

"He's never going to say it."

"**Who?" **

"**Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." **

"**Why not?" **

"**Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went … bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was …" **

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. **

"**Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. **

"**Nah — can't spell it. All right — **_**Voldemort**_**." **

Everyone gasped.

"You got him to say it!" said the twins, impressed.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches … terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway. **

People shuddered.

"**Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before … probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. **

Some muggle-borns found this hilarious. "He's making it sound like _Star Wars_!"

"**Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em … maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —" **

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. "Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anyway … **

"**You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. **

Harry again glared at the Headmaster.

**But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, **

Sirius wimpered.

"Marlene McKinnon was his fiancée" Remus muttered to Harry. Harry was shocked.

**the Bones, **

Susan paled at the mention of her family.

**the Prewetts **

the Weasleys quietened in respect for their uncles.

— **an' you was only a baby, an' you lived." **

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. **

"Nobody should ever have to hear him laugh."

**Hagrid was watching him sadly. "Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot …" **

"**Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. **

So had the school.

**Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. **

"**Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured — and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion — asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end —" **

"Very bad move, and completely untrue." sneered Snape.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word …" **

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. **

"HA"

"**That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. **

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"As usual."

"**But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?" **

"**Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see … he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go? **

Dumbledore was casually avoiding Harry's glares.

"**Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. **

"OF COURSE HE DIED!" Umbridge screamed. She was getting impatient. There had been little to no dirt on Potter, and now his ridiculous lies were being all but cemented.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"**Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — I dunno what it was, no one does **

Harry looked pointedly at Professor Dumbledore.

— **but somethin' about you stumped him, all right." **

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football? **

"**Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." **

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. **

"**Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" **

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it … every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry … chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach … dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back … and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him? **

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him. **

"**See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts." **

"Too bloody true." Harry muttered under his breath.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"Idiot."

"**Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —" **

"**If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. **

"Exactly."

**His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled—" **

"**I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon. **

The hall drew breath.

"He should not have said that. He should _not_ have said that."

"Bad plan. Very bad plan."

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" **

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and ****the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. **

The entire hall erupted into laughter, and even Snape had cracked a smile.

Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling at Hagrid's defence of him.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. **

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. **

"**Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." **

A few giggles broke out.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows. **

"**Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job —"**

"**Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry. **

"**Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

"**Why were you expelled?" **

"We've never found out."

The trio shot each other grins. The twins' jaws dropped.

"**It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." **

"Subtle."

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry. **

"**You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Nice!"

"Tha's the end o' the chapter." Hagrid said.

Professor Sprout spoke up. "I'll read, Hagrid."

Before she could start, Dumbledore called out that this would be the last chapter before bed, and Charity suggested they go through the lists after, so those that want to go to bed can, and that they aren't holding anyone up.

Pomona cleared her throat quietly and began.

"**Diagon Alley."**


	6. Chapter Five - Diagon Alley

_AN: OMG, I'm so sorry! A week and a half quickly turned to two, then almost three, and the controlled assessments ect at school have ust had me so busy, I'd had no time whatsoever to even proof read this chapter until tonight (even though I'm still meant to be writing my Biology coursework now...). Anyway, you've all waited too long already, so read on and I'll leave another note at the end._

_Lala x_

* * *

><p><em>Professor Sprout spoke up. "I'll read, Hagrid."<em>

_Before she could start, Dumbledore called out that this would be the last chapter before bed, and Charity suggested they go through the lists after, so those that want to go to bed can, and that they aren't holding anyone up._

_Pomona cleared her throat quietly and began._

"_**Diagon Alley."**_

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight. **

"**It was a dream," he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

"You just couldn't believe anything good would happen." Hermione said.

It wasn't a question, but Harry answered anyway.

"It never had before."

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise. **

_**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door**_**, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream. **

**Tap. Tap. Tap. **

"**All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up." **

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak. **

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat. **

"**Don't do that." **

Over at the slytherin table, Malfoy and his goons snorted with mirth.

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat. **

"**Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl —" **

"**Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa. **

"**What?" **

"**He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. **

"As if he's going to know how."

**Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing **_**but**_** pockets — bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags … finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins. **

"**Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily. **

"**Knuts?" **

"**The little bronze ones." **

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a ****small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window. **

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched. **

"**Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school." **

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"**Um — Hagrid?" **

"**Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots. **

"**I haven't got any money — and you heard Uncle Vernon last night … he won't pay for me to go and learn magic." **

"**Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?" **

"**But if their house was destroyed —" **

"**They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold — an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither." **

"**Wizards have banks?" **

"Well, Duh!"

"**Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins." **

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding. **

"_**Goblins?" **_

"That was my reaction too." smiled Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"**Yeah — so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe — 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." **

"Hagrid." groaned Minerva. "You just made him curious."

**Hagrid drew himself up proudly. **

"**He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you — gettin' things from Gringotts — knows he can trust me, see." **

"**Got everythin'? Come on, then." **

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm. **

"**How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. **

"**Flew," said Hagrid. **

"_**Flew**__**?" **_

The hall was amazed at how Hagrid had managed to _fly_ anywhere. He just didn't look like someone who was supposed to be airborne.

"**Yeah — but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh." **

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying. **

"**Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter — er — speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

More groans from the staff and disapproving looks from the ministry officials.

"**Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land. **

"**Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked. **

"**Spells — enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high-security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way — Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

Fred glanced at his twin.

"Oi, Lee." started Fred

"Wanna make a bet?" asked George.

"Five galleons that by the end of these books Harry breaks into Gringotts and gets out alive?" they said together.

"Deal." Lee agreed.

Unfortunately, McGonagall had heard the whole thing. "No Gambling!"

The twins pouted, but grinned when they saw their transfiguration professor make a similar deal with the tiny charms teacher, Professor Flitwick.

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the ****Daily Prophet.**** Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life. **

"**Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page. **

"We do not." said Percy loudly.

"**There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself. **

" '**Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice." **

Fudge looked offended.

"**But what does a Ministry of Magic **_**do**_**?" **

"Not much." muttered Hermione.

"**Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country." **

"**Why?" **

"_**Why?**_** Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone." **

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street. **

**Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?" **

"**Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are **_**dragons**_** at Gringotts?" **

"Charlie would go mad at Bill if there was." muttered Ginny.

"**Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon." **

The trio groaned. Minerva paled, _what if Malfoy had been telling the truth?_

"**You'd **_**like**_** one?" **

"**Wanted one ever since I was a kid — here we go." **

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the notes to Harry so he could buy their tickets. **

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent. **

"What _was_ that Hagrid?" asked Harry, curious.

"Fang's blanket." he replied.

"**Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. **

**Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket. **

"**Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need." **

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:  
><strong>

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
><strong>_**of**_** WITCHCRAFT **_**and**_** WIZARDRY  
><strong>

_**UNIFORM**_

_**First-year students will require: **_

_**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**_

_**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear **_

_**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) **_

_**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings) **_

_**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags  
><strong>_

_**COURSE BOOKS**_

_**All students should have a copy of each of the following: **_

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) **_**by Miranda Goshawk **

_**A History of Magic**_**by Bathilda Bagshot**

_**Magical Theory **_**by Adalbert Waffling**

_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration **_**by Emeric Switch **

_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi **_**by Phyllida Spore **

_**Magical Drafts and Potions **_**by Arsenius Jigger**

_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them **_**by Newt Scamander**

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection **_**by Quentin Trimble**_**  
><strong>_

_**OTHER EQUIPMENT**_

_**1 wand **_

_**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) **_

_**1 set glass or crystal phials **_

_**1 telescope **_

_**1 set brass scales **_

_**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**_

_**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**_

"Unless you're Harry bloody Potter." growled Malfoy.

"**Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud. **

"**If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid. **

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow. "I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops. **

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him. **

Hagrid smiled.

"**This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." **

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside. **

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?" **

"**Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle. **

"**Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this — can this be — ?" **

Snape rolled his eyes. _So this would be where all Potter's arrogance came from._

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. **

"**Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter … what an honour." **

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. **

"**Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back." **

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming. **

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron. **

"I bet you loved that." commented Ron sarcastically. He knew that his friend hated his fame, yet couldn't always understand why.

"**Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." **

"**So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud." **

"**Always wanted to shake your hand — I'm all of a flutter."**

"**Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle." **

"**I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop." **

"**He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" **

**Harry shook hands again and again — Doris Crockford kept coming back for more. **

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

"**Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts." **

The trio growled at the mention of their former Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, while the rest of gryffindor wondered what the poor man had done to get them on his bad side.

"**P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you." **

Harry snorted in disagreement.

"**What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" **

"**D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought. **

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble. **

"**Must get on — lots ter buy. Come on, Harry." **

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a rubbish bin and a few weeds. **

**Hagrid grinned at Harry. **

"**Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh — mind you, he's usually tremblin'." **

"**Is he always that nervous?" **

"**Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience. … They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag — never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject — now, where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the bins. **

"Oooh, I love going that way, we normally just apparate."

"**Three up … two across …" he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry." **

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. **

**The brick he had touched quivered — it wriggled — in the middle, a small hole appeared — it grew wider and wider — a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. **

"**Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall. **

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons — All Sizes — Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver — Self-Stirring — Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them. **

"**Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first." **

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. **

Ron shivered at the thought of a particularly large eight-eyed creature he had met a few years back.

**He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they're mad." **

Minerva chuckled as she heard Severus agreeing.

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon. … **

"**Gringotts," said Hagrid. **

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was —**

"**Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them: **

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed **_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed, **_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn. **_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors **_

_**A treasure that was never yours, **_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware **_

_**Of finding more than treasure there. **_

"Oh, I love that poem." said Luna dreamily.

"**Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid. **

"Like I said, five galleons?" Fred repeated the offer and although McGonagall glared, she didn't say anything, and they shook hands on it.

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter. **

"**Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe." **

"**You have his key, sir?" **

"**Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblins book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals. **

"**Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key. **

**The goblin looked at it closely. **

"**That seems to be in order." **

"**An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen." **

Minerva sighed. "It's really no wonder they worked it out, the three of them are so curious and they had, by the sounds of it, a few hints."

Hagrid looked sheepish.

**The goblin read the letter carefully. "Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!" **

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall. **

"**What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked. **

"**Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in — Hagrid with some difficulty — and were off. **

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. **

"I'm surprised you remembered that much."

"Indeed. Mr Potter, whose memory is being portrayed as so vast, would do well to show more signs of using it in the classroom. For, in all his years here, I had seen no sign of a brilliant mind inside that reckless head of his."

Snape was annoyed. He didn't like the nagging feeling at the back of his mind, so, as usual, took it out on the Potter boy.

Petunia turned to her nephew.

"Reckless? What on earth have you done these past few years?"

"You'll find out, I'm sure."

**The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. **

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late — they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. **

"**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?" **

"A stalagmite grows from the ground, whereas a stalactite hangs from the ceiling." Hermione answered quickly.

Harry grinned.

"Thanks," he said, "but I like Hagrid's answer better."

"**Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick." **

Hermione laughed.

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. **

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. **

Harry blushed as Dudley gaped at him.

"**All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's — it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London. **

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag. **

"**The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. **

"Prime numbers?" a Muggle-born asked. "Sterling is so much easier; it's all divisible by ten."

**Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?" **

"One speed only." chuckled Tonks.

"**One speed only," said Griphook. **

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

"Stupid gryffindor." muttered Snape.

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"Ooh, high security."

"**Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. **

"**If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook. **

"**How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. **

"**About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin. **

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least — but at first he thought it was empty. **

"What?"

**Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask. **

"**Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid. **

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life — more money than even Dudley had ever had. **

"**Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." **

"Really? You were meant to looking after him!" muttered Minerva.

**He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous. **

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. **

"**Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here — another young man being fitted up just now, in fact." **

Malfoy groaned, realising what the book was about to describe.

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length. **

"**Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?" **

"**Yes," said Harry. **

"Who is it?" asked Neville.

"**My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. **

"Ah." he grinned.

"**Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." **

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley. **

"**Have **_**you**_** got your own broom?" the boy went on. **

"**No," said Harry. **

"**Play Quidditch at all?" **

"**No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be. **

"_**I**_** do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my House, and I must say, I agree. Know what House you'll be in yet?" **

"**No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute. **

"**Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" **

All hufflepuffs, past and present, turned to glare at Malfoy.

Hannah Abbot spoke up: "Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin."

"**Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting. **

"**I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in. **

"**That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts." **

"**Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?" **

The gryffindors growled.

"**He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second. **

"**Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of **_**savage**_** — lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed." **

"**I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly. **

"_**Do**_** you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?" **

"**They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy. **

"**Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were **_**our**_** kind, weren't they?" **

"**They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." **

"**I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?" **

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

"**Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy. **

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts). **

"**What's up?" said Hagrid. **

"**Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed colour as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

"**Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know — not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"**Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. **

"— **and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in —" **

"**Yer not **_**from**_** a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh **_**were**_** — he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles — look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!" **

Petunia lowered her head. She knew she had been a terrible sister, and regretted it now.

"**So what ****is**** Quidditch?" **

Dudley perked up, eager to learn more about the world his cousin loved.

"**It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like — like football in the Muggle world — everyone follows Quidditch — played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls — sorta hard ter explain the rules." **

"**And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?" **

"**School Houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but —" **

"**I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily. **

"**Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. **

Hannah grinned.

"**There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one." **

"What about Black?" someone called.

"He should have been a Slytherin, his whole family was. Death eaters the lot of them."

The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and the order members tried to ignore the conversations happening around them.

"Not too long now, Snuffles, the truth will be out soon."

Sirius licked Harry's hand in response.

"**Vol-, sorry — You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?" **

"**Years an' years ago," said Hagrid. **

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from **_**Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More)**_** by Professor Vindictus Viridian. **

"**I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

The hall laughed. Dudley grinned.

"I bet you know some now."

Harry smirked. "I'll get you later!"

"**I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," **

Harry glared at Umbridge. He knew now that it was she who sent the dementors to Little Whinging, trying to get him expelled.

**said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level." **

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). **

Severus was muttering again about the lunacy of pricing.

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again. **

"**Just yer wand left — oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present." **

"Thank you, Hagrid." whispered Petunia, glad that someone had cared when they, his family, forgot.

**Harry felt himself go red. **

"**You don't have to —" **

"**I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at — **

Neville blushed.

**an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. **

Hermione scowled.

**I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

Harry smiled at the thought of Hedwig, who chose that moment to come swooping into the hall, landing on his shoulder.

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. **

Hedwig hooted at her description, making those around them laugh.

**He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell. **

"**Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. **

Petunia looked at Harry sadly.

**Just Ollivanders left now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand." **

"Ooh, this is always the best part."

**A magic wand … this was what Harry had been really looking forward to. **

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382b.c. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. **

"According to Mr. Ollivander, that wand was Merlin's."

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. **

"That place gives me the creeps."

**For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic. **

"You could sense it?" asked Professor Sprout.

Harry nodded.

"That's a sign of a very powerful wizard, Mr. Potter" The headmaster put in, however he still did not look up.

"**Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. **

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. **

"**Hello," said Harry awkwardly. **

"**Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." **

Petunia seemed to have something in her eye, and Professor Flitwick smile sadly at the thought of his former student.

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. **

The majority of the student population shivered.

"**Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. **

McGonagall smiled as she remembered one of her more rowdy gryffindors.

**Well, I say your father favoured it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." **

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. **

"**And that's where …" **

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

"**I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands … well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do. …" **

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid. **

"**Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again. … Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

"**It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid. **

"**Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern. **

The trio smiled encouragingly at their large friend.

"**Er — yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly. **

"**But you don't **_**use**_** them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply. **

"**Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke. **

"**Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now — Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?" **

"**Er — well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

"**Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand." **

Again, Dudley listened carefully. He didn't want to miss anything.

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. **

"**That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beech-wood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave." **

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once. **

"**Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —" **

**Harry tried — but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. **

"**No, no — here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out." **

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. **

"How many did you try, Harry?" questioned Hermione.

"Umm, probably about fifty."

"**Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." **

Harry smiled.

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well … how curious … how very curious …" **

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious … curious …" **

"**Sorry," said Harry, "but **_**what's**_** curious?" **

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare. **

"**I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar." **

The hall gasped. Umbridge smiled. _Finally,_ she thought_, something we can use._

**Harry swallowed. **

"**Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember. … I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter. … After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great." **

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop. **

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. **

"**Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said. He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow. **

Hermione smiled. "I felt the same. You've just discovered a brand new world, but after a few hours you're meant to just forget all about it for the next month or so. It puts everything out of perspective."

"**You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid. **

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life — and yet — he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words. **

"**Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander … but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night my parents died."**

Snape frowned. That wasn't right.

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile. **

"**Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts — I did — still do, 'smatter of fact." **

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope. **

"**Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me. … See yeh soon, Harry." **

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

McGonagall groaned. "You didn't tell him how to get on to the platform!"

Hagrid swore quietly.

Dumbledore stood up and the hall fell silent.

"It is time for bed, although those who wish to listen to Professor Burbage explain away any questions you may have about the muggle references so far, feel free to remain here and listen. Guests, rooms have been set up for you that Professor McGonagall will escort you to. Mr. Dursley,"

Dudley squeaked at being personally addressed by someone so obviously important.

"You may either stay with your mother, or a bed can be set up in the Fifth-year Gryffindor Dormitory. It is your choice."

Thinking he would like to get to know his cousin more, without the influence of his father or the gaze of his mother, he opted to go with the boys his age.

He was welcomed with a round of butterbeer and some Every-flavour beans. They discussed the events of the day, and wondered at what else was in store.

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><p><em>AN: I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and I just wanted to quickly say thanks to all the new reviewers, followers and favorites. I'll try to reply individually soon but to the guest who reviewed last nightthis morning and anyone else who is feeling the same doubt, I have all of PS half written (the basic ideas/characters for each chapter) and up to the start of HBP ready to begin. I have no intention of dropping this story anytime soon, so don't worry. _

_To the other guest who reviewed on the 4th Dec, Colin I know is muggleborn, but to me he always seems to be a bit ditzy, and so I thought his exclamation was acceptable. In my opinion, knowledge of the correct use of English does not depend on magical heritage, but hey, its up to you. _

_Thanks everyone, and hopefully the gap between this and the next chapter won't be as long - I'm aiming to get another one out before christmas!_

_Lala x_


	7. Chapter Six - The Journey from Pla

_AN: Hi everyone! Thankfully this update was a lot quicker than the previous one, and I have also managed to reply to as many reviews as I can see. I apologise if anyone who has reviewed has been __for you, and Merry Early Christmas!_

_Lala x_

* * *

><p>The next morning, everyone had assembled and was part way through breakfast when the doors opened and Professor Dumbledore strode in, closely followed by two very familiar people, Mr and Mrs Weasley.<p>

The younger Weasleys jumped up and ran to greet their parents, closely followed by Hermione, Harry, and Snuffles. Remus and Tonks waved from their seats at the gryffindor table, and Moody grunted a greeting as they passed.

As he returned to his seat, Harry glanced up at the top table to where Percy was sitting. He had his head down and showed no indication that he knew his family had just entered. They didn't look at him as they took their place at the Lions' table. Dumbledore had explained what had happened so far, and the two Weasleys looked sympathetically at the boy they considered one of their many sons.

"It just isn't right, telling your story to the whole world, you don't need to relive everything, and they have no to listen."

"It's fine, Mrs. Weasley, and they can't stop anything that toad has put in place. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, this is my aunt, Petunia, and cousin Dudley."

"Ah, yes. I believe we've met before? Arthur Weasley, and my wife Molly."

Petunia laughed.

"You blew up our living room and your twins quadrupled the size of Dudley's tongue? I remember."

Harry paled. He remembered the night before that all too well.

Pointing to each in turn, Arthur introduced his children. "I'm sure you know about Harry's close friendship with Ronald, our youngest and only daughter Ginny, and then there is our troublemaker twins Fred, and George.

"He's not Fred, I am!"

"Honestly, man, you call yourself our father?"

"Stop messing around, idiots. I can tell you apart, and I can tell you Mr. Weasley, you were right the first time."

The Weasleys gaped at Harry.

"It's not that hard. Fred has more freckles on his nose and George has more gold flecks in his eyes."

"Wow, Harrykins, we thought it was only us that had noticed that!"

"Right, well. If you play any more pranks on our dorm this year, I'll tell McGonagall so she can tell you apart."

"You wouldn't sink so low."

"Test me."

Ginny laughed, and at that moment, Dumbledore stood up, and Professor Burbage began the reading for the day.

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"Is it ever?"

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him — in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.**

"That's got to be depressing after a while," said Tonks, while her hair changed from pink to blonde when she yawned.

**Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while. **

Under the cover of the quiet laughter around the hall, Aunt Petunia apologised.

"I just didn't want to make anything worse."

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in **_**A History of Magic**_**. His school books were very interesting. **

Ron looked at Harry as if he had grown an extra head. Hermione looked as if she could have kissed him.

**He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first. **

Snape frowned. He had done the exact same thing every year during the holidays, anxious to get away from the pain.

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day,**

"You waited until the day before?" asked Remus in disbelief.

Harry grinned sheepishly.

**So he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room. **

Everyone laughed.

"**Er — Uncle Vernon?" **

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening. **

"**Er — I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts." **

**Uncle Vernon grunted again. **

"**Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" **

**Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes. **

"**Thank you." **

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke. **

"**Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?" **

"They're illegal, idiot. What would that have looked like? Hundreds of people flying up to Scotland."

**Harry didn't say anything. **

"**Where is this school, anyway?" **

"**I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. **

"Scotland," Hermione said at once. "Didn't you say you read A History of Magic, Harry?"

"Er – I might have just skipped that part,"

**He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket. **

"**I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read. **

**His aunt and uncle stared. **

"**Platform what?" **

"**Nine and three-quarters." **

"**Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters." **

"**It's on my ticket." **

"**Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother." **

"**Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly. **

"Like that will last long."

"**Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings." **

Hagrid smirked.

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. **

Hermione smiled. Evidently she had done the same.

**He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes — he'd change on the train. **

"Good plan." commented Moody.

**He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off. **

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him.**

"Wait, what?"

**Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face. **

"**Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?" **

"Shit."

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all. **

"**Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. **

Snape glowered. He turned to glare at Petunia.

"You knew. You had been to the platform before. I saw you. Why didn't you say anything to him? I'm surprised he even arrived here with all the help you gave."

**All three of them were laughing. Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone. **

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.**

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. **

"Imagine if there had been another train."

**In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl. **

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten. **

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying. **

"— **packed with Muggles, of course —" **

"Oh thank Merlin for that."

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. **

The Weasleys cheered.

**Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him — and they had an **_**owl**_**.**

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

"Eavesdropping, Mr. Potter? That's not very polite."

"Neither, Minister, is spying on a group of innocent children."

"Spying, Mr. Potter? I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"Oh, nothing, Sir. We must have mistaken each other."

Minerva glared at the boy for being so rude, while Dudley gazed open mouthed at his cousin who dared question so openly who he understood to be the magical equivalent of a Prime Minister.

"**Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother. **

"**Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go …" **

Ginny groaned.

"**You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first." **

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it — but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished. **

"Bad luck, mate." grinned Neville.

"**Fred, you next," the plump woman said. **

"**I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you **_**tell**_** I'm George?" **

"**Sorry, George, dear." **

"**Only joking, I am Fred," **

"He was George, now that I think about it."

**said the boy, and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone — but how had he done it? **

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier — he was almost there — and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere. **

**There was nothing else for it. **

"**Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman. **

"**Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." **

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. **

"Nice, mate, thanks."

"**Yes," said Harry. "The thing is — the thing is, I don't know how to —" **

"**How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded. "Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron." **

"**Er — okay," said Harry. **

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid. He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble — leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run — the barrier was coming nearer and nearer — he wouldn't be able to stop — the cart was out of control — he was a foot away — he closed his eyes ready for the crash — **

"And SMASH!" yelled Charity. Many of the adults were looking shocked. Mrs. Weasley squeaked in horror despite witnessing the event herself.

Harry was laughing uncontrollably. "She's joking," he said finally. Many people were giving the professor accusing looks, but they were still amused.

The twins were also laughing hysterically and Hermione rolled her eyes.

**It didn't come … he kept on running … he opened his eyes. **

**A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words **_**Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**_** on it. He had done it. **

Cheers rang out.

Sirius whined sadly, wishing, if not Lily or James, that he would have taken him to the Hogwarts train for the first time.

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. **

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again." **

Neville sighed.

"**Oh, **_**Neville**_**," he heard the old woman sigh. **

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd. **

"**Give us a look, Lee, go on." **

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg. **

"Did you know, Harry, that your owl ate Lee's pet?" said the twins grinning.

Lee seemed upset of the mention of his pet, who had coincidentally been named Fluffy, while Hedwig, who had stayed in the hall after swooping in with the other owls, hooted smugly.

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot. **

"**Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier. **

"**Yes, please," Harry panted. **

"**Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!" **

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment. **

"You actually helped a complete stranger?" asked Ginny, amazed. "_Without_ pranking them?"

"It has been known to happen."

"**Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. **

"**What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar. **

"**Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you — ?" **

"**He **_**is**_**,****" said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry. **

"**What?" said Harry. **

"_**Harry Potter**_**," chorused the twins. **

"**Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am." **

The gryffindors laughed.

"Oh, him." they said. "Are you serious?"

Padfoot barked, and Harry could just imagine him going "No, I am!"

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door. **

"**Fred? George? Are you there?" **

"**Coming, Mum." **

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train. Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. **

"You know, Harry," Fred said slowly.

"You wouldn't make a bad prankster..." continued George.

"How would you like to join us?" finished Lee.

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief. **

"**Ron, you've got something on your nose." **

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose. **

It was Ron's turn to groan.

"_**Mum**_** — geroff." He wriggled free. **

"**Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins. **

"**Shut up," said Ron. **

"**Where's Percy?" said their mother. **

"Perfect Percy" muttered George, out of range of Mrs. Weasley's hearing.

"**He's coming now." **

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it. **

"**Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —" **

"**Oh, are you a **_**prefect**_**, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea." **

"**Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. **

"**Once —" **

"**Or twice —" **

"**A minute —" **

"**All summer —" **

Many laughed at the twins antics, but Percy grumbled and his parents looked sad.

"**Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect. **

"**How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins. **

"**Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there." **

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins. **

"**Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —" **

Minerva shot Molly a glare. "Surely you know not to give them any ideas by now?"

"**Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet." **

"**Great idea though, thanks, Mum." **

"**It's **_**not funny**_**. And look after Ron." **

"**Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us." **

"**Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it. **

"Great."

"**Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" **

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking. **

"**You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?" **

"**Who?"**

"_**Harry Potter**_**!" **

**Harry heard the little girl's voice. **

Ginny hit her head on the table in shame.

"**Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please. …" **

"**You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo.**

"Thank you, Mrs. Wealsey." Petunia said quietly.

"Call me Molly, dear. And it's my pleasure, he's like an extra son to me, and a brother to the kids."

**Is he really, Fred? How do you know?" **

"**Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there — like lightning." **

"**Poor ****dear**** — no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform." **

"**Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?" **

**Their mother suddenly became very stern. **

"**I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school." **

Petunia smiled again.

"**All right, keep your hair on." **

**A whistle sounded. **

"**Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry. **

"**Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls." **

"**We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." **

McGonagall looked disapproving, while Ginny said, "I never got that."

Harry smiled. "I did."

"_**George**_**!" **

"**Only joking, Mum." **

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved. **

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to — but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind. **

Petunia and Dudley were sad that Harry felt so unwelcome in their home, but couldn't be surprised. They only had to make sure everything was better from now on.

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in. **

"**Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

"Course." snorted Seamus

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose. **

"Ugh. That mark will haunt me for evermore."

The twins grinned.

"RON'S GOT THE DARK MARK!"

"Shut up."

"**Hey, Ron." **

**The twins were back. **

"**Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there." **

"**Right," mumbled Ron. **

"**Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then." **

"**Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them. **

"**Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out. **

**Harry nodded. **

"**Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know …" **

**He pointed at Harry's forehead. **

**Harry pulled back his hair to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. **

"**So that's where You-Know-Who — ?" **

"**Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it." **

"**Nothing?" said Ron eagerly. **

"RONALD WEASLEY! I SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU NOT TO ASK HIM."

"Well … actually, Mum, you told _Fred_ not to ask him…"

"**Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else." **

"**Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again. **

"**Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him. **

"Really?" asked Ron quietly.

Harry nodded.

"**Er — yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him." **

"He's a squib. A jealous one, who, instead of embracing life became angry and obnoxious."

"**So you must know loads of magic already." **

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about. **

Malfoy snorted. "Not exactly."

"**I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?" **

"**Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. **

"We have to change that view soon enough."

**Wish I'd had three wizard brothers." **

"**Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. **

"Aww**, **don't worry Ron, we love you too." said the twins, insulted.

"**I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." **

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave Ron sad looks, who turned pink. They silently swore to have a word with all their children when the readings where over.

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep. **

"**His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff— I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window. **

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up. **

"Ron!"

"… **and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —" **

People shivered, but less than the day before. Hearing the name said frequently seemed to be helping people's fear.

**Ron gasped. **

"**What?" said Harry. **

"_**You said You-Know-Who's name**_**!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —" **

"**I'm not trying to be **_**brave**_** or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn. … I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class." **

"**You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough." **

"Just look at Hermione."

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past. **

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?" **

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor. **

**He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry — **

"What are Mars Bars?"

"Muggle chocolates."

**but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts. **

"Really, Harry?"

Noticing the look on his cousins face, Harry turned and said "I have some of everything upstairs from Hogsmeade"

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat. **

"**Hungry, are you?" **

"**Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty. **

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

"Oh, sorry dear. Which one of you does, then?"

"That would be me." said a voice from behind Mrs. Weasley.

"Charlie!" she gasped, turning to envelop him in a hug. "I didn't think you were coming home until next week."

"Dumbledore owled me about the reading, and invited me over. You must be Dudley, and Petunia. Nice to meet you."

He held out his hand for them to shake, while Mrs Weasley introduced him.

She then apologised to Charity, who smiled and continued.

"**Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on —" **

"**You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us." **

"**Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten). **

"Fair enough."

"**What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not **_**really**_** frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him. **

"**No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa." **

"I've got that one." smirked Ginny.

"**What?"**

"**Oh, of course, you wouldn't know — Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect — famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy." **

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore. **

"**So **_**this**_** is Dumbledore!" said Harry. **

"**Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks —" **

**Harry turned over his card and read: **

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE **

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS **

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten pin bowling. **

The trio groaned.

"We could have saved so much time!" accused Ron.

"Sorry."

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared. **

"**He's gone!"**

"**Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her … do you want it? You can start collecting." **

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. **

"**Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

"Really?"

"**Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. **_**"Weird!"**_

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcraft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. **

"**You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavour, they **_**mean**_** every flavour — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once." **

"I DID. Nobody ever believes me."

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. **

"**Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts." **

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavour Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper. **

"Lucky." laughed Charlie.

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills. **

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful. **

"Dammit. I had hoped you hadn't noticed."

"**Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" **

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!" **

"**He'll turn up," said Harry. **

"**Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him …" **

**He left. **

"**Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." **

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap. **

"**He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look …" **

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. **

"It was a good wand when new."

"**Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —" **

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes. **

Hermione buried her head in her hands, knowing what was coming.

"**Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. **

"That's nice, thanks."

"**We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand. **

"**Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." **

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback. **

"**Er — all right." **

**He cleared his throat. **

"_**Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, **_

_**Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.**__**"**_

The twins laughed so loudly, Hedwig squawked and took off into the air.

"I can't believe you fell for that. I mean, really?"

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep. **

"**Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" **

Professor Burbage took a deep breath and asked Hermione if there was any chance she held the World Record for the longest time underwater, as she obviously had amazing lungpower. Hermione just blushed.

**She said all this very fast. **

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either. **

"No-one does."

"**I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered. **

"**Harry Potter," said Harry. **

"**Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in **_**Modern Magical **__**History**_** and **_**The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts**_** and **_**Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century**_**.****"**

"**Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed. **

"**Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. … Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." **

Hermione blushed again. She had been annoying when she was younger, she knew that now.

**And she left, taking the toad less boy with her. **

"**Whatever House I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. **

"Humph."

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

"Why do you think I gave it to you?"

"**What House are your brothers in?" asked Harry. **

"**Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. **

"**Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw **_**would **_**be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

"**That's the House Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?" **

"**Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed. **

"**You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off Houses. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?" **

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school. **

"**Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the **_**Daily **__**Prophet**_**, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

The younger years and Dursleys gasped. From what they had heard of the bank, that couldn't have been good.

**Harry stared. **

"**Really? What happened to them?" **

"**Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it." **

"Yeah, well."

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying. **

"**What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked. **

"**Er — I don't know any," Harry confessed. **

"**What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world —" **

"That topic will last you the rest of the journey…"

**And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy or Hermione Granger this time. **

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. **

"Get out of it, Malfoy."

**He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley. **

"**Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?" **

"**Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards. **

"They are."

"**Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." **

Dudley and a few muggle borns laughed. "Bond, James Bond."

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him. **

"**Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." **

The Weasley family growled.

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. **

Malfoy scowled.

"**I think I can tell the wrong sorts for myself, thanks," he said coolly. **

The gryffindors grinned. "That's how it started."

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. **

"**I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you." **

**Both Harry and Ron stood up. **

"**Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair. **

"**Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered. **

"**Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron. **

"**But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some." **

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron — Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell. **

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle — Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. **

The hall laughed.

"Best thing that bloody rat ever did." muttered Ron quietly.

**Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in. **

"**What ****has**** been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail. **

"**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep." **

**And so he had. **

"**You've met Malfoy before?" **

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley. **

"**I've heard of his family,"**

"Who hasn't?"

**said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?" **

"**You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!" **

"**Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?" **

"**All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" **

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down. **

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his trainers underneath them. **

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." **

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. **

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" **

Hagrid smiled.

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. **

"**C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice. **

"**Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." **

**There was a loud "Oooooh!" **

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. **

"That sight is beautiful however many times you see it." sighed Minerva

"**No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. **

"**Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!" **

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. **

"**Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. **

"**Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them. **

"**Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. **

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. **

"**Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

Charity smiled. "So. You're at Hogwarts. What happens now?"

Harry laughed. "All hell breaks loose."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Thanks for reading! Hope you have a good Christmas everyone, have a mince pie on me! Lala x<em>


	8. Chapter Seven - The Sorting Hat

_AN: MERRY CHRISTMAS! I couldn't give you all an individual gift, so have a chapter instead! Sorry it's not a Christmas themed one, but I'm a bit behind on my updates due to a couple of delays a few weeks ago. Sorry! Hope you all had a good Christmas and a prosperous new year! _

_Lala xx_

Petunia had sat quietly throughout the last chapter, glad to see that despite everything, her nephew was still polite and able to make good, lasting friends. She imagined him standing up for parents he had never known to that Malfoy boy, and felt pride. It seemed to be one of the only things that really angered him, people degrading his parents. At this point, he hadn't event learnt anything about them. She knew, even though he tried to hide it, Harry had a photo album of his parents, and over the summer she had 'accidentally' left out a box labelled _LILY_ when she asked the boy to organise the attic. Seeing as it hadn't been there when she went up the next day, Petunia assumed Harry had taken them and added the photos to his collection. She needed to show she wanted to understand her nephew, and so offered to read the next chapter.

With all eyes on her, Petunia coughed, and began.

**The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross. **

"And yet, you continuously manage to do so." muttered Professor McGonagall.

Harry grinned.

"**The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. **

"**Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." **

**She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. **

**They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously. **

"**Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room. **

"**The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours. **

"**The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." **

Tonks smiled. "That speech hasn't changed at all."

Her hair today was a bright turquoise, and Remus smiled as she smiled, brightening both their faces. Charlie smiled as well, realising Lupin's feelings for the clumsy metamorphmagus.

**Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. **

"Urgh."

**Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair. **

"There was no point."

"**I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."**

**She left the chamber. Harry swallowed. **

"**How exactly do they sort us into Houses?" he asked Ron. **

"**Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." **

"FRED!"

**Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet — what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.**

"Helpful."

**Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teachers wig blue. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom. **

"Gosh, you're dramatic."

**Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air — several people behind him screamed. **

"What happened?"

Nick smirked from his place beside Dean.

"**What the — ?" **

**He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk **

"GO FAT FRIAR!" the Hufflepuffs cheered.

**was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —" **

"**My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?" **

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. **

"Go on , Nick, show the Dursleys what happened."

"Not after breakfast, Mr. Creevey. Maybe after this chapter."

"Thanks, Nick."

The ghost turned to Petunia and her son. "I am sorry, my dear lady, I haven't introduced myself. Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington, at your service. Most however, insist on calling me…"

"Oi, Nearly Headless Nick!"

He grimaced. "Yes, Mr. Abercrombie?"

"Can you show us that thing you do with your neck? Please, sir?"

Nick sighed dramatically, gripped his left ear, and pulled. Dudley realised why he was 'Nearly Headless'.

"Now, can we proceed with the novel?"

Petunia shuddered, but read on.

**Nobody answered. **

"**New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" **

**A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old House, you know." **

"**Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."**

**Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. **

"**Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me." **

**Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. **

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in **_**Hogwarts, A History**_**.****" **

"Of course you did."

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.**

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

Dudley smirked.

_**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it**_**,**

"Why on earth would we do that?"

"It's a muggle trick." replied Professor Burbage

**Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing — noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing: **

Realising his aunt was not about to sing the song on her own, Harry glanced at Ron and started singing what he remembered from when he first heard the song all those years ago. By the second line, the whole of gryffindor who had been there had joined in, and eventually the rest of the upper years and the teachers had come together with tiny Professor Flitwick leading them with his wand from on top of the staff table.

By the time they had finished, everyone was laughing and cheering, and it took a few minutes to get to a point where Petunia could pick up the book again to continue.

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. **

"**So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll." **

Mrs. Weasley frowned.

**Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a House for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him. **

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. **

"**When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. **

"**Abbott, Hannah!" **

The Hufflepuffs cheered.

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause — **

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. **

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her. **

"**Bones, Susan!" **

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah. **

"**Boot, Terry!" **

"**RAVENCLAW!" **

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. **

"**Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling. **

"Really, boys. She was eleven."

"**Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. **

**He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him. **

Dudley looked away. He regretted how he had treated Harry, and was going to try to make it up to him.

"**Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" **

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" **

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the House at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

"**Granger, Hermione!" **

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. **

"**GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned. **

"Thanks, Ronald."

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train? **

"Do you ever become more cheerful?"

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag." **

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" **

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon" … , "Nott" … , "Parkinson" … , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" … , then "Perks, Sally-Anne" … , and then, at last — **

"**Potter, Harry!" **

Everyone fell silent, wanting to know why his sorting had taken so long. Many believed he was a gryffindor through and through and that the hat had had some other reason for his long chat with The-Boy-Who-Lived.

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. **

"_**Potter**_**, did she say?" **

"_**The**_** Harry Potter?" The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited. **

"**Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult.**

"Really? I wouldn't have thought so."

Harry sat in silence, waiting for the eruption.

**Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting. … So where shall I put you?" **

"You could have been in any house?"

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, **_**Not **__**Slytherin, not Slytherin**_**. **

Harry lowered his eyes from the glares coming from the table of the snakes. He knew that if it wasn't for his prejudice, he would have been sat there with them. He only wanted to fit in, Ron was his first friend, and it was obvious he wouldn't end up wearing a green and silver tie, and so neither would he. It was all about self-preservation. He knew in his heart that, really, he was nothing but a snake in a lion's den.

"**Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!" **

Harry looked around. Umbridge and Fudge were smirking again. No surprise there. However, no-one else seemed to have the reactions he expected. Madam Bones looked like she was contemplating and idea, McGonagall seemed slightly surprised, but happy. Ron and Hermione were unconcerned, Sirius barked and jumped on to his lap and Snape… well, Snape seemed almost calculating. The Slytherins only stared. They didn't seem to know what to do with this new information.

**Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. **

"Well of course you did."

**Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" **

The twins repeated this, much to Harry's amusement.

**Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water. **

"I'm sorry, Harry my boy!"

"It's fine, Nick. Don't worry about it."

**He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban. **

The trio shuddered at the thought of what was really under that turban.

**And now there were only four people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" **

**Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him. **

"**Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away. **

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago. Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. **

"It is the sight that makes me happiest."

"**Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!**

"**Thank you!" **

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. **

"If you want to laugh, do. Grasp every opportunity at happiness while you can. You know not how long it will last, dear boy."

"**Is he — a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly. **

"**Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?" **

**Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. **

Ron seemed to be drooling, and Dudley had a glazed look in his eyes.

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, **

"If that's not starving, I don't know what is."

**but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if it made him sick.**

Dudley blushed. His mother hadn't known about that.

**Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious. **

"Hogwarts food always is."

"**That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.**

"**Can't you — ?" **

"**I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower." **

"**I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you — you're Nearly Headless Nick!" **

"**I would **_**prefer**_** you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy —" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted. **

"_**Nearly**_** Headless? How can you be **_**nearly**_** headless?" **

**Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted. **

Nick glanced away. Everyone knew that this was the highlight of Nick's calendar, and that he was a very good actor when he wanted to be.

"**Like **_**this**_**,****" he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So — new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the House Championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! **

Minerva smirked at Severus. The lions had won every year since.

**The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost." **

**Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

"**How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest. **

"**I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately. **

"Bet you those three find out." Neville whispered to Seamus. Seamus looked away. He didn't want anything to do with Potter right now.

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jelly, rice pudding … **

**As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families. "I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mam didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." **

**The others laughed. **

"**What about you, Neville?" said Ron. **

"**Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me — he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned — but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here — they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad." **

"That's awful."

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons **

"Obviously."

**("I **_**do**_** hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult —"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing —"). **

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

"Three guesses who."

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. **

Remus looked worriedly at the Potions Master, who seemed unconcerned at the whispers flying around like snitches.

"**Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head. **

"**What is it?" asked Percy. **

"**N-nothing." **

**The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look — a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all. **

"I am so glad you noticed, Potter."

"**Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy. **

"**Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to — everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape." **

Petunia glanced up to the top table, wondering how much had changed in the man she used to know.

**Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.**

**At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. **

"**Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. **

"**First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." **

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins. **

"Boys…" Mrs. Weasley warned.

"**I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. **

"That gets ignored, you all know that."

"**Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. **

"**And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." **

"Why?"

"What happened down that corridor?"

"Tell me he was joking."

**Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did. **

"**He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy. **

Percy was becoming uncomfortable at being mentioned so frequently.

"**Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least." **

"Prefects aren't gods, you're still only students."

"**And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. **

Pomona sighed. "Are all your lions this observant?" she asked Minerva.

Dumbledore seemed offended. He looked out over his staff. "Do you not like the song?"

There was a lot of quick answers of "Of course we do." and "How could we not?"

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words. **

"**Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"**

The hall bellowed out the song, with Petunia and Dudley looking only slightly confused. When everyone had finally finished, Petunia carried on.

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest. **

"**Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" **

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. **

"Why did he take you the long way?"

**They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt. **

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him. **

"**Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves — show yourself." **

**A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. "Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" **

"You pulled out the Baron card too soon. He won't listen now."

"And how would you know that, Mr. Lupin?"

"Well, Professor, I have since found a much more effective way of dealing with him."

Harry laughed, remembering a certain occasion during his third year.

**There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks. **

"**Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" **

**He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked. **

"**Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy. **

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed. **

"**You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are." **

"Ooh," said Luna "We get to hear about your common room."

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress. **

"**Password?" she said. **

"Before anyone tries to get in, the passwords change very week or so."

"**Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs. **

"Sounds cool."

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed. **

"**Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets." **

**Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once. **

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. **

"Couldn't have been as strange as my current ones…"

**He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking. **

"That _is_ strange. I don't even want to imagine what Snape laughing sounds like!"

**He rolled ****over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.**

Petunia finished reading and looked up. There was a sense of expectation throughout the hall, and everyone seemed eager to carry on quickly. Turning the page, Petunia smirked. She looked up at the top table saying, "Professor Snape?" He sneered back at her but summoned the book. Looking down at the pages, there was only one idea running through his mind. _This is not going to be good._

_AN:_

_Here's the layout of the gryffindor table - _

_Fred – Angelina_

_George – Lee_

_Ginny – Colin_

_Hermione – Neville_

_Ron – Seamus_

_Remus & Snuffles –Tonks_

_Harry – Dean_

_Dudley – Sir Nicholas_

_Petunia – Arthur_

_Molly – Charlie_


	9. Chapter Eight - The Potions Master

_AN: Hope you have all had a good start to the new year, have you made any new year's resolutions? Mine was to update and write regularly, and we are now back to regular updates every week-and-a-half, which will be better for you lot! I've not had a very good track record with resolutions, but I'll really try this year! Promise…. Lala x_

* * *

><p><em>She looked up at the top table saying, "Professor Snape?" He sneered back at her but summoned the book. Looking down at the pages, there was only one idea running through his mind. This is not going to be good. <em>

Severus sighed.

"**Chapter eight – The Potions Master"**

Minerva grinned. "No-one else got their own chapter, Severus; Harry must like you after all!"

The two mentioned both wore identical grimaces at the thought.

**"There, look." **

"**Where?" **

"**Next to the tall kid with the red hair." **

"Thanks, whoever that was."

"**Wearing the glasses?" **

"**Did you see his face?" **

"**Did you see his scar?" **

**Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. **

"That must get annoying." muttered Tonks

"It does."

Snape snorted in disbelief. Potter loved it really. Of that, he was still sure.

**People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. **

"So that's why we all gave out so many detentions!" winked Professor Flitwick.

**Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes. **

**There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts:**

"How on earth do you know that?" asked Fred.

"It's in _Hogwarts: A History_, do you not read?" piped up a young Ravenclaw.

"NO! Who do you think we are?" answered George.

**wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. **

Neville sighed. "I still forget those." He said, sadly.

**Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, **

"The kitchen." The Weasley twins said quickly.

**and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk. **

"They can."

**The ghosts didn't help, either.**

"Ah, so sorry everyone."

"Don't worry, Nick."

**It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction,**

"Of course!"

**but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!" **

Remus sniggered slightly and Snuffles let out a bark that sounded similar to a laugh, but both fell silent at a glare from McGonagall.

"Umm, we might have taught Peeves a few things."

Those who knew about Lupin's involvement in the Marauders laughed, but many of the students were shocked that their bookish, almost shy ex-Professor was a troublemaker.

**Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. **

Filch humphed.

**Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. **

"Surprise, surprise."

**Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. **

Many people rolled their eyes.

**He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

Ron's eyes widened.

**Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. **

"My cat is NOT scrawny."

**She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins)**

"And the marauders." muttered Tonks.

**and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick. **

Remus sniggered again. "James did that once. We had to bribe Mrs. Norris into not fetching Filch, and we always carried a small piece of chicken or something else to give her for the rest of our time at Hogwarts."

McGonagall was astonished. That cat had never liked her, partly because of her animagus abilities and also as she was a teacher who never fell for any of Filch's tricks. She now knew both how the marauders got away with so much and why Mrs. Norris had followed Remus around so much during the year that he taught at the school.

**And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. **

Many people rolled their eyes, but a few muggle borns nodded along.

**They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. **

**Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. **

Everyone turned to look at Binns, who had fallen asleep in his chair at the staff table.

**Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. **

"THANK YOU!" said a young hufflepuff loudly. "I knew it wasn't just me."

**Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. **

Everyone smiled at the cheery professor.

**At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. **

Snape sighed.

**Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. **

"**Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." **

Fred turned to his head of house with wide eyes. "You never kicked us out, Professor."

Molly glared at her son, while Charlie tried to hide his smile.

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile. **

"That _is_ very impressive, Hermione." praised Charlie. Hermione only grinned.

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

"Not quite garlic." muttered Harry darkly.

**Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start. **

**Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. **

"What happened?"

**They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once. **

Everyone laughed.

"Well, how long did it take you then?" said Ron defensively.

"About 20 minutes. You just keep going down the stairs until you get to the portrait of Morgana, and then it's on the right."

"**What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge. **

"**Double Potions with the Slytherins," **

The hall groaned in sympathy.

**said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them — we'll be able to see if it's true." **

"**Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry. **

"Why should I? The whole point of school is that you become experienced, and learning how to do things for yourself and staying out of trouble is part of it."

**Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before. **

**Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps. **

**Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.**

"Your owl is brilliant, Harry."

Hedwig hooted from where she sat on the table, receiving the complement gracefully.

**This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl: **

_**Dear Harry,**_

_**I know you get Friday afternoons off so would you like to come and have a **_

_**cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. **_

_**Send us an answer back with Hedwig.**_

_**Hagrid**_

Remus looked up at Hagrid, and mouthed "Thank you" to the smiling giant.

**Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled **_**Yes, please, see you later**_** on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again. **

**It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far. **

"What a surprise."

The students and Ministry workers looked excited to hear a description of Snape's lesson, but his colleagues were a mix of disappointed and disapproving.

**At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. **

"Sorry, what?"

**Snape didn't dislike Harry — he **_**hated **_**him. **

"That's more like it"

It seemed that everyone knew of the animosity between the two.

**Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. **

**Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name. **

"**Ah, **_**yes**_**," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new — **_**celebrity**_**.****" **

There seemed to be a silent agreement between the students not to interrupt Snape while he was reading, but the professors had no such worries.

"That was completely unnecessary, Severus." snapped Minerva.

As Snape opened his mouth to retort, Harry spoke up.

"Look, we may as well just wait until the end of the chapter, otherwise you are all going to get annoyed every three lines and we'll never get anywhere."

**Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels. **

The students shuddered.

"**You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." **

Tonks snorted. "Sorry. I just. That speech was great until the dunderheads part."

**More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. **

"Of course."

"**Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

"That's not even a first year question!"

Harry sighed. There was no point even trying to get through these books quickly.

_**Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?**_** Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air. **

Hermione blushed.

"**I don't know, sir," said Harry. **

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer. **

"**Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything." **

**He ignored Hermione's hand. **

"**Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" **

"That may be first year, but it's the first _day_. You can't have been more than three minutes into the lesson."

**Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.**

"**I don't know, sir." **

"**Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"**

**Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. **

"God, you're brave."

"Um, gryffindor, Hannah."

"Oh, yeah."

**He**_**had**_** looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in **_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_**? **

"Wrong book." muttered Snape.

**Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand. **

"Really, Severus."

"**What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"That's fifth year!" shouted Lee Jordan.

"It's also a trick question." said Remus, who was glaring at Snape. He only sneered back at the werewolf.

Dean spoke up. "Hey, Harry."

"Yeah?"

"You don't happen to know Victorian Flower Language do you?"

"No, ask Neville, he's the Herbology Guru."

Neville beamed, but Petunia's eyes widened as she realised what this boy was getting at. She had studied flower language in her spare time, and had her garden planted accordingly: pink Camellias for longing, pink Carnations and Everlasting for never ceasing remembrance, Maidenhair ferns for a hidden love and magic, Freesias for innocence, Harebell for grief and purple Hyacinth for sorrow. There was also, hidden in the midst of the ferns, a white Calla Lily, an olive branch, and a single tea rose. Only she knew of the symbolism – I will always remember you, be at peace my Lily surrounded by magic. However, what the boy was implying - it was ridiculous.

She thought back to what _that man _had read. _What was it? "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Asphodel: My Regrets Follow You to the Grave. Wasn't it also a type of Lily? That was interesting. And wormwood: Absence. So, put that together – Lily, I regret your absence? Lily, I am sorry for your absence, and regret everything? Either was likely. But was he addressing Lily at all? Was it _Harry_ he was talking to? "What would you say if I told you that I regretted your mother's death?" To which he replied, "I don't know." That could be it._

Petunia was curious now.

**At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling. **

"**I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"**

Many teachers laughed, and Petunia smiled at Lily's obvious cheek.

**A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased. **

"I don't suppose he was."

"**Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" **

"You didn't ask them to!"

**There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter." **

"Going a bit easy on him, Professor?" asked Ginny, smiling.

Snape ignored her.

**Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued.**

"Why am I surprised."

**Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. **

Malfoy grinned smugly.

**He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. **

"Oh, dear."

**Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. **

"Ooh. Not good."

"**Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" **

**Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. **

"**Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville. **

"**You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? **

"If he did you would've moaned that he didn't pay enough attention to his own potion!"

"What his classmates do shouldn't be the main issue for an eleven-year-old!" said Petunia.

"Neither should the stone." said Harry to Ron.

**Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor." **

Minerva turned, enraged, to her younger colleague. It was so unfair, even by his standards; yet Harry spoke again.

"Look, this was reasonable for Snape, so if you can't handle his first lesson, I don't know how you lot are going to be able to read everything else that is in these books. Forget it, his manner is just another part of Snape, I may not like it, but hey, I just get on with my life. You lot should try it."

**This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron. **

"**Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty." **

**As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week — **_**why**_** did Snape hate him so much? **

"I don't know why you're complaining, Harry, that must be some sort of record for you!"

"**Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?" **

**At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. **

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "**_**Back**_**, Fang — **_**back.**_**" **

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. **

"**Hang on," he said. "**_**Back**_**, Fang." **

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound. **

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. **

"**Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked. **

Hagrid smiled.

"**This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate. **

"**Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest." **

The twins grinned.

"Oh, tha' reminds me. Is I' all righ' if I leave for a mo? I'll be ba' by teh end of teh chapter."

Hagrid walked out.

**The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes. **

"Ew."

**Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git.'' **

Filch humphed.

"**An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her — Filch puts her up to it." **

But he then grinned as he knew that one day, he would catch Hagrid out.

**Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students. **

"**But he seemed to really **_**hate**_** me." **

"**Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?" **

**Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.**

"**How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot — great with animals." **

"Subtle."

Charlie smiled, Hagrid had been a good friend to him as well while he was at Hogwarts.

**Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the **_**Daily Prophet**_**: **

_**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST **_

"Hang on, someone broke into Gringotts?"

The hall erupted into chatter as this news sunk in.

Harry was explaining to Dudley why that was such a big deal.

Eventually, Snape stood up. "Rather than all this _unnecessary_ speculation, why don't you all _be quiet_, so I can continue to read?"

The hall fell silent at once and Snape smiled smugly to himself.

_**Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. **_

_**Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. **_

"_**But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.**_

**Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date. **

"**Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!" **

**There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. **_**The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day.**_** Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for? **

Minerva groaned. "You worked that out far too quickly."

**As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry? **

Snape turned the page, saw the first line, and growled.

"Mr. Malfoy, perhaps?"

Malfoy faltered, that tone wasn't good. Yet at the piercing stare his godfather was giving him, he stood, and slowly made his way to the top table. His mask was threatened even more when he saw his mother, Narcissa, glide into the room. He quickened his pace, and grabbing the book as he passed, greeted her stiffly.

"Mother."

"Good Morning, Draco. I trust you are well?"

"Yes. Will you sit with the teachers, or with the Slytherins?"

"I think I shall join you and the snakes."

"Brilliant."

They made their way back across the hall, under the watchful gaze of both Fudge and Umbridge.

Once they were both seated, and Hagrid had hurried back into the room, Draco opened the book and began to read, silently cursing his mother for arriving at the worst possible point.

"_**Chapter nine – The Midnight Duel"**_

* * *

><p><em>AN: All the flower language 'translations' were properly researched, so I hope it all makes sense and fits with the story! I love Petunia, and I hope that by the end, you will too! Lala x<em>


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